Bacon is My Cocaine

 

We all know that bacon is tasty, but apparently it is also addictive now.  A new study by the Scripps Research Institute shows that fatty foods have an addictive quality and say it's along the same lines as heroine and cocaine.  These fatty foods stimulate the pleasure center of the brain so someone who overindulges on a regular basis will become accustomed to the stimulation and require a greater quantity of fatty foods to get the same feeling.  In the study, rats that were allowed to indulge in fatty foods not only became obese but they also continued to gorge themselves even when shocked (Kirstie Alley has also exhibited the same behavior).  The rats on a normal diet avoided the fatty foods when they realized they would be shocked if they went near it.  No word yet on whether or not the fat rats would literally kill a guy for a piece of pie.

Essentially this study proves that there is more to overeating than just lack of willpower and a desire to become the world's largest woman.  The problem I have with this is that one only becomes addicted after overindulging.  So, at some point you make the decision whether consciously or unconsciously to eat more than you should and to continue to do so long enough to become addicted.  Someone doesn't become addicted to heroine if they haven't had heroine before or even if they only tried it once or twice.  The only exception I know of being Ozzy Osbourne who, rumor has it, was born with a spoon in his hand and immediately asked for a lighter and a live bat.  If you start shooting up regularly, you shouldn't be surprised when you become addicted.  Of course I realize that there are a multitude of reasons that people end up falling into the over-eating trap; stress, anxiety, boredom, ignorance, growing up a child star, and a slew of other factors can cause you to overindulge.  So what happens once you are addicted?  Is there no hope?

The article doesn't discuss a solution to the problem other than a brief mention of possibly using prescription drugs to counteract it, because that's what addicts need, drugs.  Don't rush off to the methadone clinic yet though.  They also mention that these studies on rats may not translate exactly the same to humans. However since humans and rats act pretty much the same it's safe to assume the results are legit.  This study would explain why so many people have trouble losing weight and keeping it off.  They can usually stay away for a while, but eventually are lured back in by the siren song of bacon (bacon = harpy).  Let's just hope this and future studies aren't used as an excuse by those who wish to overeat, but rather as a deterrent for the next generation of potential over-eaters.
And now for a little fun at the expense of childhood obesity.....









Without a doubt Sean Astin can now do the truffle shuffle as well.  Too much hobbit food.


Why am I writing so many posts about food lately?  Probably because, with more free time on my hands, I have to be more aware of how much I eat and that I don't eat out of boredom.  If writing about food keeps me from eating it then that's what I'll do.

Fat, Fatter, and Fattest: America's Fat Children

We are a generation of fat people raising another generation of fat people.  America has a 34% obesity rate, but luckily that has leveled off over the past few years.  Notice I said "leveled off" and not decreased.  Apparently we've run out of fatty foods or we've just gotten as sedentary as we can possibly get and still be alive enough to count towards the statistic.  Hell, we've even got people trying to get as fat as possible.  No wonder British chef Jamie Oliver couldn't take it any longer and traveled to America to try and teach us how to eat healthy.  His new reality show, Jame Oliver's Food Revolution shows that many Americans would just rather be fat and die early. 

Someone should have warned Jamie that West Virginia is not the best place to go for a show, unless you're doing a Depression Era series and don't have the money for wardrobe or make-up or real actors.  No surprise that Jamie met with a lot of opposition trying to change the types of food elementary school age children were eating at home and especially at school.  Parents and school administrators and cooks would rather stuff the children with fat laden pre-processed crap than entertain the idea of feeding them healthier food.  They had excuses for everything: the food had to meet certain guidelines to be served to school children, they don't have the time or the man power to serve healthier food, and they don't think elementary school children should be given forks and knives to eat with.  That last one stunned Jamie and quite frankly me too.  I remember elementary school and I'm pretty sure we had forks and knives and we weren't stabbing each other with it or anything like that.  The school cooks are surprised that elementary school kids are expected to know how to eat like a normal human being with manners and instead expect them to shovel nachos and sloppy joes into their mouths with their hands and maybe a spoon if they want to get all uppity about it.

Maybe I'm missing something here.  I would personally rather pay a little extra money and take a little extra time to prepare healthy foods rather than feed my children crap that I know will make them unhealthy shorten their lives.  The children in the elementary school Jamie visited couldn't even identify vegetables and didn't know that french fries came from a potato! Granted, this is West Virginia and probably not the best example of American children's eating habits. 

It is a shame that the quickest, simplest thing to make is unhealthy but that is changing.  Now you can buy foods that require little to no preparation that are healthy, but these are often more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts. I'll give you an example of a food that's inexpensive and requires no preparation: an apple.  You don't have to spend your evenings eating tofu burgers and brussel sprouts but at least make a conscious effort to avoid eating your daily allowance of fat in one meal.  If money and convenience is an issue, at least consider frozen and canned vegetables over a continuous parade of chicken nuggets, french fries, and pizza. 

I suppose a lot of this has to do with culture and economic status, but there has to be a point where you decide that you want your children to lead a better, healthier life than you.  Just because your parents were ignorant of nutritional content and what constitutes a healthy diet, doesn't mean you have to be ignorant too.  And if you want to eat pizza and burgers at least run or something you lazy bastard. 

Home Sweet Home, Wherever That Is

Everybody needs a comfortable, familiar place to go to at the end of the day to leave behind all the stress of work, worry, and homicide-inducing coworkers.  No matter where it's at or what type of building it's in, we call this place home.  For the  past several years, ever since I joined the Army, I don't feel that I've had a home.  Even after I got past the living in barracks thing I still lived in an apartment and not at any one place for more than a year.  I don't think I can really ever see an apartment as a home though. You share a building with other people who are often loud when you want things to be quiet, have annoying children or  pets, and the apartment  management can come in any time they like.  If you try ignoring the knock at the door you may find a worker using his own  key to get in anyway, and that just makes for an awkward moment.

So, the husband and I are planning for our next move.  It depends largely on where my husband gets a job.  We are considering several places: Washington D.C., Virginia, Augusta GA, Arizona, and Maryland.  Quite a mix of places with each having their pros and cons.  So where do I want to live?  My answer changes day to day.  Yep, I'm one of those moody types who can't seem to figure out what they want to do.  That's why I'm leaving it largely in my husband's hands now as long as he doesn't try to move to Alaska or something. 

I had been resisting the idea of moving to Arizona until today.  It just seems like the easiest option with the most jobs available.  The town we would move to is a comfortable size for me (small town but not so small there isn't a bookstore), it is warm (love warm weather), and the housing there is cheap compared to what we'd be making.  So, you might ask, why don't you want to  move there?  I'm from Georgia and hence, am a huge fan of trees and lots of them.  There is far too much non-tree atmosphere for me.  And, I know several people that work there, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

So what about my other options?  Washington D.C. has horrible crime and traffic and is just too large for my tastes.  Maryland seems better but there's still traffic and I feel that I would somehow betray my southern heritage by moving north of the Mason-Dixon.  I'm sure the ghost of General Lee comes to haunt all southerners living in the Yankee states.  Virginia would save me from rebel retribution but wouldn't be too deep south.  Augusta would be not much different from where I'm living now, and honestly getting away from Georgia might be a good thing for us.  That obligatory family thing going on - not our problem.  As long as you live far enough away from family, you don't feel obligated to deal with family drama.  A phone call will suffice.

As you can see, we've got a lot to consider.  Pretty much any place we move we'll find something we don't like about it (I know, so pessimistic).  And, this move doesn't have to be the place we live for the rest of our lives.  Still, I long for an actual  house that I can call mine and a place I can call home.  I just wish I knew where that should be.        

Health Care Reform Is Coming Our Way

Well, it's done.  The House of Representatives passed the Health Care Reform Bill by a margin of 219 to 212.  I normally like to stay away from controversial issues, but this has gotten too big to ignore.  Even though it is less than an hour since the bill was passed, there's already a slew of opponents to the bill in uproar.  People aren't playing nice either.  You've got people on the floor of the House slinging insults at one another (someone called Stupak a baby killer) and protesters hurling racial slurs at lawmakers in support of the bill.  I can't say supporters of the bill are helping much.  I don't feel comfortable with the slim majority this bill passed by. 

First thing that annoys me about all this is the plethora of ill-informed people spouting their opinions.  If you don't really know what the Health Care Bill says, why are you so fired up?  Just because Glenn Beck says something doesn't make it true.  And just because you consider yourself a liberal and Democrats are in support of the bill doesn't mean you should automatically support it either.  Don't let politicians polarize us as they have Washington.  Also, don't think you have to be staunchly for or against.  You can support passing the bill without agreeing with the whole thing and you can disapprove of passing it without condemning the whole thing.

No matter how important an issue is, there's no need to demonize the opposing position.  Supporting the Health Care Reform Bill basically means you support the government mandating national health care and health insurance for most Americans.  It doesn't mean you've acquired a forked tongue and intend to invade Poland next.  Opposing the Bill simply means you don't want the government interfering with health care and health insurance and instead you'd rather choose what coverage you get and pay for it yourself.  It doesn't mean you've decided to weed out all the poor people by letting them get sick and die. 

Regardless of your position on this bill, the effects aren't going to be noticeable right away anyway.  This bill takes effect in 2014.  A lot can happen in four years.  So why don't we all just have a drink and call it a night.

New Computer Yeah!

I haven't exactly been the most productive writer yesterday and today.  I blame it partly on the nice weather forcing me to go out instead of stay in and write.  Most of the blame though is really on me for fooling around with my new computer.  Getting everything set up and transferred and saved to this computer has preoccupied me, but so has playing games online.  I have a 24" monitor now which is a major upgrade from the small laptop screen I had been using.  When I play farmville now it's as if I'm actually on the farm. 

Anyway, with that in mind this post is just going to be a bunch of comments on things I like and not a well thought out or put together blog entry.  Hope you don't mind.

Things I like --

Mental Floss - If you haven't ever read this magazine, I encourage you to.  It's a mix of two things most people are severely lacking nowadays: humor and intelligence.  Mental Floss has a way of educating you and making you laugh at the same time.  Some of their stories are about normal things (like the recent article "10 Provocative Questions about Chickens Answered") and others are a little more bizarre ("10 Prostitutes Who Changed the World").     


Rock Band 2 - The original RB was just a kick ass idea when it first hit the market in late 2007.  Granted it took the idea from the Guitar Hero games, but playing the drums is much more bad ass.  The ability to form your own garage band without worrying about making too much noise for the neighbors is appealing to a lot of people.  Now they have a bunch of additional accessories that make playing even more realistic.  The addition of 1, 2, or 3 cymbals to your drum set simulates an electronic drum kit much better.  Now if only they'd have a set-up that includes a hi-hat pedal we'd be set.

TweetDeck - If you've got an account with more than one social networking site, you'll benefit from TweetDeck.  You can set up a column for each of your sites allowing you to track everyone's tweets and status updates on one page.  You can also submit a status update and have it post to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace (if anyone still uses that), and any other site you want simultaneously.  You can also minimize it and continue working on the internet and it'll alert you to new updates from your friends with a brief tweet and momentarily flashing the new update in the upper right hand corner of your screen.  A good program for those multi-taskers out there.   

Windows 7 - Okay, so I've just starting working with this and I can't say I've discovered all the capabilities of this program, but so far I've got to say that I'm impressed with it. I have to say that a large part of it has to deal with aesthetics.  It is sleek and pretty and easy to use.  So far, so good.

My Husband - Even though he probably won't read this, I gotta give props to my hubby.  He is the nicest man I know and he is intelligent, funny, and attractive.  He got me a computer, added stuff to it, hooked it up and stayed up until 4am doing this for me.  He also came home from work today with Dunkin Donuts.  Freakin sweet.  I love him.

The Bigger the Better

While other women are busting their butts trying to get thin, there is a woman in New Jersey trying to do just the opposite in reaching new levels of obesity.  It's been reported that Donna Simpson is trying to eat her way to a Guinness world record for being the heaviest woman alive, but a recent New York Post article quotes her as saying she doesn't have realistic expectations of reaching that goal.  Nevertheless, she's consuming enormous amounts of food in order to gain weight.

I think my favorite part of this whole article is the statement  that "Guinness denies it’s encouraging Simpson and other freaks, only chronicling what they’d be doing naturally".  I don't know if the "freaks" part is Guinness's word or the NY Post's word.  It is fun to joke about all this but really it's more sad than anything.  Donna has a daughter that's three and likely mom won't live to see her daughter graduate high school.  That doesn't seem to bother Donna at all.  She gladly consumes about 12,000 calories a day! I don't think there's a way I could eat that much in one day if I tried, much less every day. 

Donna's boyfriend seems to be encouraging this endeavor of hers.  He wouldn't be the first guy to have a fat fetish, but there has to be a limit somewhere.  On the website I referenced above there is a link to a photo of Donna with only her underwear and bra on.  She doesn't seem to mind the fact people are gawking at her enormous belly that cascades down to her thigh region and is dangerously close to reaching her knees. 

It's one thing to decide that you aren't going to buy into the whole super model thin-trend, but another thing when you purposely try to gain an unhealthy amount of weight.  She obviously has some sort of addiction or deeper issue that needs to be addressed.  I'm no psychologist so I can't speak from expertise on this, but just reading about this makes me think this woman needs help.  Those around her are only enabling her either by directly supporting her or indirectly by giving her publicity and fame from all this.  I only hope that she doesn't actually make the world record or end up encouraging others to try to meet this ridiculous goal.  

 

A Man Was Hit by a Plane and...You Guessed It....Died

A Georgia man was killed yesterday while jogging when he was struck by a plane on Hilton Head Island.  Yep, this is one helluva way to die.  Apparently the small plane was making an emergency landing and the man was listening to his iPod and didn't hear the plane.  How loud is your music if you can't hear a plane coming straight at you?  Unless this was some secret super-silent spy plane it seems unfuckingbelievable.  I'm assuming his funeral will be closed casket.  Unfortunately he had a young three year old at home who will never be able to tell the story of her father's death without people laughing at her first and then awkwardly realizing she isn't telling a joke.

If you are particularly interested Wikipedia has an entry dedicated to List of Unusual Deaths.  Unfortunately many of these deaths aren't that interesting but rather someone dying at an inopportune moment or letting a small infection turn into something fatal.  There are, however, a few deaths that are really out there.

-- A Finnish actress died in 1939 when she mistook a chimney for a balcony and fell down the chimney to her death.  Where was Santa then huh?  And how in the hell do you confuse a chimney with a balcony?  I've never been to Finland but I'm pretty sure their architecture isn't that different from ours.

-- A Guitarist was electrocuted to death by a microphone while on stage.  This was probably God's way of telling him to stop singing.

-- Christine Chubbuck, a news reporter in Florida, committed suicide on live television in 1974 by pulling out her revolver and shooting herself in the head.  She decided to take her 15 seconds of fame at the end of her life. What a horrifyingly selfish way to claim the spotlight for yourself.

-- Then you have the guy that died laughing, literally. I've heard of this happening but what surprises me is that the movie he was watching at the time was A Fish Called Wanda.  Of all the movies you die laughing from it's this one?

There are many, many more of course.  I just concentrated on the modern day deaths, but they also included historical deaths as well.  It seems as if those would be more difficult to prove and were likely exaggerated over the years.  When my time comes I really don't want it to be sensational enough to get into the news.  If I'm going to be known for something,  I don't want it to be dying.  After all, I won't be around to reap the benefits.